Point Reyes National Seashore, California. Photograph by Gregory McNamee.

Of course, it does not do quite that, but the view of the Pacific Ocean from the Point Reyes National Seashore, a place often lonely though within an hour or so of metropolitan San Francisco, is so vast and engulfing that it seems as if there could be no more land, ever, on the other side of the horizon.

Administered by the National Park Service, Point Reyes National Seashore is a little-known gem of the national park system, certainly as compared to nearby venues such as Yosemite and the Muir Woods. It is also one of my favorite places on the planet, and when I am there I find myself wondering why Sir Francis Drake, who landed there in 1578, didn’t burn his ship and stay put.

On the shores of another shining big sea water, the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is less well known still. The sand dunes stand more than 200 feet above the level of Lake Michigan, and they have taken thousands of years to form. From them, you can see the skyscrapers of Chicago on a clear day, though I prefer to keep my gaze on the vast inland sea before me, which will outlast us millions of lifetimes over. Think “Ozymandias,” as the lone and level sands stretch far away …

Another of my favorite parks is one that I get to far less often than I’d like, owing not just to accidents of distance but also because of the remoteness of the place within its own country. The Swiss National Park lies near the Austrian border in Graubünden canton, where Rhaeto-Romansch is widely spoken—at least as widely as it gets. The rugged Central Alps have isolated populations, human and otherwise, so that dialects will vary widely from one valley or peak to the next, even as birds and mammals take on local colorations and habits. The park is a scientific preserve where logging, mining, and other human activities of the sort that cause so many problems in national parks elsewhere are strictly forbidden. It’s a great place to walk, hike, climb, and feel very, very small against the towering mountains.